Did anyone in your personal life inspire the Em character in The Smallest Thing? Or the father? Or mother?

I’ve never knowingly based a character directly on someone I know, but bits of my personal experience and the traits of people I’ve met often sneak in.

There is a bit of the teenage me in Em. I didn’t grow up in small village like Em. I grew in the suburbs of a major city, but I remember feeling like I didn’t belong, like I was destined for something else. I think it’s a universal part of growing up, whether you feel confined by a small town, or someone else’s expectations, or just that you don’t fit in somehow, there’s something in each of us that wants to push the boundaries set for us. Em isn’t a rebel, and nor was I, but she wants to test the limits of her upbringing and be her own person.

Em’s dad is the kind of dad he needed to be to push Em into action. He’s a good guy, but the boundaries of his world don’t match Em’s. His role in the story is to provide the initial obstacles for Em and then teach her how to become her own person within the boundaries imposed on her by the quarantine. He is loosely based on a someone I know who is very involved in the community in which I grew up. He’s a really nice guy and does a lot of great conservation work in the community, but I could imagine the challenges of growing up in his shadow and having to live up to his reputation. He provided the basis for the kind of dad that would create friction for Em.

As for Em’s mother, I’d like to state for the record that none of the terrible mothers I write are in the least bit based on my own mother. I’m sure people who’ve read my books look sideways at my poor mother now, but she couldn’t be more different to the characters I write. Em’s mother came out of a writing prompt. I wrote about a character who discovers a secret (always a good prompt for digging up juicy storylines) and realized that Em wasn’t the only person feeling stifled in the village. Em’s mother has an entire unwritten backstory of how she came to find herself in that awful predicament. I’m pretty certain she has a lot of regrets about the decisions she made by the end of Em’s story.

Has anyone relayed to you their own experience with meeting someone they knew in a prior life?

A few weeks ago I posted something about the research I did while writing A Strange Companion, including doing a past life regression. Someone commented that, as a three-year-old child, she had recalled memories of a place she had never visited before. She knew details of her family life and her role in the village, and even recalled some Native American words. It opened up a whole conversation and several women said their children had had similar experiences. I’m sure there are any number of scientific explanations for this, but I find the possibility of reincarnation fascinating.

Why is it important to you to write about young adults?

That period of life between age 16 and 25 is one of huge transitions. You’ve been inching toward adulthood all through your teens, and pushing the independence and self-discovery envelope. Then suddenly, you’re an adult and so many of the safety nets of school, parents, living at home, being supported financially, and being “just a kid” fall away.

I remember being 17 and feeling like I had this whole “adulting” business sorted out. Then I went away to college and my world blew wide open. I had to navigate new relationships with people from all different backgrounds, I had responsibilities, things weren’t handed to me on a plate anymore, and I had to deal with so many “adult” situations that I was totally unprepared for. That period is such a steep learning curve, which makes it fantastic grist for the fiction mill.

And even though I write stories about young people, they’re not solely stories for young people. The themes of letting go of a lost love, navigating grief, discovering who you really are, and figuring out what’s really important in life are universal themes that we have to figure out well into adulthood. As for the topic of navigating relationships, that is a never-ending program of study.

The Smallest Thing and A Strange Companion are richly set in the English countryside. Any plans to write a book set in SoCal? I’m an Anglophile so I’m happy with more village life.

They say “write what you know” and I seem to be mining my early life for stories at the moment. That said, I’ve now lived in Southern California for more than half my life, so a shift in venue is bound to happen at some point. When I come up with a new story idea, I do weigh the pros and cons of setting it in one place or another. I needed to set The Smallest Thing in Eyam, and I wanted to set A Strange Companion in my hometown of Sheffield. If a story would be better served being set in L.A., I’d certainly be open to the possibility.

Did you need an agent to get your story out, or did you choose the self-publishing route? Considering the route you took, what caveats do you have for new authors with no publishing experience?

I have published both my fiction and non-fiction books through my own publishing company, Steel Rose Press, so no, I didn’t need an agent for that. What’s wonderful about this current era in publishing is that there are many ways to get a story in front of readers. There are also countless authors willing to share their experiences online, and offer lots of great advice for new authors. My caveat would be that, no matter which publication path you choose, make sure your story is ready to be read. Work on your craft, find trusted beta readers, be willing to accept feedback, and do the work to make the book the best it can be. If you send out a half-baked story to an agent or publisher, you risk a rejection notice and potentially burning a bridge for future work. But if you self-publish a half-baked book, readers will send their rejection slips via bad reviews, word-of-mouth, and with their future purchasing decisions. The trick is finding the balance between getting your work into the world where it can be read, and not publishing in haste, just because you can.

What’s the next book you’re writing? When will that be out?

At the moment, I have several projects bubbling away. I have a couple of novels brewing and some shorter pieces. I keep stirring them and testing their worth. Eventually, one of them will bubble up and demand to be written.

The thing with writing a novel is that you have to live with the idea for a long time. Not just through that first draft, but through numerous revisions and editing, then through the publication process, and then you have to talk about it once it’s published. I’m waiting to see which of my ideas has the necessary heat. So, it might be a while before the next novel is ready.

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A big thank you to everyone who submitted questions. I answered lots of other great questions during the blog tour. If you missed it, you can still catch up and visit the stops. Here is a rundown of all the sites I visited:

July 18: Rebecca Lacko and I discuss researching and writing The Smallest Thing, why fathers figure so prominently in my stories, and how published authors can find effective book marketing techniques.

July 19: At A New Look on Books I answer the question, “Could you be a hero?” Hint: the answer is “yes” but you’ll have to read the post to see why.

July 20: Heather Sunseri had lots of great questions about favorite destinations and how travel has colored my writing.

July 21: At Booked for Review, I chatted about being a late bloomer and how the wrong path can lead to the right destination.

July 22: In a rooftop hotel lounge overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Michael Raymond and I discussed killing off beloved characters, tricks for finding a characters voice, and how a scratched record marked a turning point in my musical evolution.

July 23: Farah Oomerbhoy asks about the one wish I have for my books, and pries a nugget of Aiden trivia out of me.

The very last thing 17-year-old Emmott Syddall wants is to turn out like her dad. She’s descended from ten generations who never left their dull English village, and there’s no way she’s going to waste a perfectly good life that way. She’s moving to London and she swears she is never coming back.

But when the unexplained deaths of her neighbors force the government to quarantine the village, Em learns what it truly means to be trapped. Now, she must choose. Will she pursue her desire for freedom, at all costs, or do what’s best for the people she loves: her dad, her best friend Deb, and, to her surprise, the mysterious man in the HAZMAT suit?

Inspired by the historical story of the plague village of Eyam, this contemporary tale of friendship, community, and impossible love weaves the horrors of recent news headlines with the intimate details of how it feels to become an adult—and fall in love—in the midst of tragedy.

Or order now from the following retailers

I can’t wait to share Emmott’s story with you and introduce you to the fictional people of the very real village of Eyam.

To celebrate, I’ve put together a special gift box with a signed copy of The Smallest Thing and some surprise gifts. To enter the giveaway, come with me on my blog tour as I talk to authors and book bloggers, answer their prying questions about everything from travel to chocolate, and dish up some behind-the-scenes tidbits about The Smallest Thing.

It’s the story of Em, a young woman on the brink of embarking on her new life, who finds herself trapped in a dull English village by a government-imposed quarantine. It’s a story of “self-sacrifice, the power of human touch, and the need to act in the face of horror,” writes Catherine Linka, author of A Girl Called Fearless, who was kind enough to do an early review of the book.

And if you’d like to join me to celebrate the book’s release, I’m throwing a Publication Party at {pages}: a bookstore in Manhattan Beach on Tuesday, July 18th at 7pm. I’ll be signing, reading, and—most likely—eating cake. Hope to see you there.

This week I’m very pleased to welcome Farah Oomerbhoy to the blog. Farah is celebrating the publication of the second book in The Avalonia Chronicles series. The Rise of the Dawnstar is out today. I chatted with her about family, inspiration, and writing heroic female characters.

1. Avalonia was inspired by a tapestry that hung on your grandmother’s wall, and themes of family and belonging run through your books. How has your own experience with family shaped your stories?

That’s a very good question. I didn’t think anyone has ever asked me that before. 🙂

All authors draw from life experiences to form the basis of a story. But after a character starts coming to life everything changes. My books are no different; influences from my childhood and family life do tend to find their way into my work. But eventually, the characters and the story find their own path.

As a child, I had an almost perfect life, until the day my parents divorced and my father married again. I was seven years old.

I had always lived in a big joint family, with my parents, brother, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. But when my father left I started to realize that life was not always fair.

In a way, Aurora’s life at the very beginning mirrors that feeling of having a charmed life, until the day you realize that nothing will ever be the same again.

When I first imagined Aurora, I started to question what life would be like without the support of a close-knit family unit. How would a person cope, what would they become, would they be strong enough to survive on their own.

Writing Aurora’s story is a way of exploring these questions.

Her journey is not only one of external discovery but an internal struggle to find a sense of belonging, of self-worth. To find the happiness that was wrenched away from her at a very young age. The family that she is reunited with through the book, Aunt Serena, Uncle Gabriel, Erien, her grandmother, etc. are all parts of her once perfect life that she is trying to piece together again.

Aurora learns through trials and mistakes that life is not always fair, but you don’t have to do it on your own. Even a hero can ask for help sometimes. No one is perfect and if you have family and people who care about you, it gives you a strength that you never thought was possible.

All her life she thought she was alone, that no one really cared about her until she comes to Avalonia and realizes the importance of family and duty and finds a sense of belonging she never had before.

2. You wrote in an interview once that you loved fantasy stories, such as The Lord of the Rings, as a child, but would be frustrated that the girls never got to do anything. How did you balance writing a strong, heroic female character like Aurora with maintaining her femininity?

It was hard at first achieving this balance. I wanted my main character to be one whom young teenage girls could relate to. But at the same time I wanted her to be strong-willed, capable, and someone whom they could look up to as well.

Even though Aurora may have magical powers and trains to be a warrior; her likes and dislikes, her naiveté at times and even her infatuation with Rafe, reminds us that she is still, in essence, an ordinary sixteen-year-old girl. She ends up making mistakes and gets into trouble just like a regular teenage girl would. She didn’t grow up as a warrior so her feminine side is quite ingrained in her character.

I wanted readers to see that to be a hero and a warrior, a girl doesn’t have to dress up as a man or give up who she really is inside. She is perfectly capable of being feminine and a hero at the same time.

3. The Rise of the Dawnstar is the second book in your Avalonia Chronicles. When you wrote The Last of the Firedrakes, did you know it would be the first book in a series or was it originally just a stand-alone story you were burning to tell?

When I first imagined Avalonia I did not think I could even write one book, let alone a whole series, but I decided to give it a try.

At first, it was just a standalone book, called Aurora Firedrake. Until I realized that Aurora’s story would take a while to tell. So once I was halfway through The Last of the Firedrakes, I decided this would be a trilogy, and I named it The Avalonia Chronicles.

4. How are you like Aurora? How are you not at all like her?

Aurora could be a sixteen-year-old version of myself, but at the same time, she is not me.

One of the main concepts of the story is that Aurora could be anyone; that at any point in time it could be you who could open a cupboard, enter a library, or step into a tapestry and be transported to a magical world.

Aurora is an ordinary girl trying to make sense of an extraordinary life. She’s the girl next door, someone you wouldn’t believe could ever be a princess or a warrior.

Everyone has within them the potential for greatness, but it is the choices we make and the standards we live by that shape our character and help us grow into our true abilities.

That is what makes an ordinary person a queen.

5. Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on next?

Book 3 😉

The Rise of the Dawnstar,
book two of The Avalonia Chronicles.

Aurora Firedrake returns in the spellbinding sequel to The Last of the Firedrakes.

The seven kingdoms of Avalonia are crumbling and evil is spreading across the land like a plague. Queen Morgana is close to finding a way to open The Book of Abraxas and it’s only a matter of time until she uses the power trapped inside its pages to enslave the entire world.

The seven kingdoms of Avalonia are crumbling and evil is spreading across the land like a plague. Queen Morgana is close to finding a way to open The Book of Abraxas and it’s only a matter of time until she uses the power trapped inside its pages to enslave the entire world.

With Avalonia growing more dangerous by the day, Aurora must travel through war-torn lands and deep into the heart of the fae kingdom of Elfi. Her goal is to find a legendary weapon infused with the last of the realm’s ancient magic—the only weapon in the world powerful enough to stop the queen.

Aurora might have survived her first battle against Morgana, but the true fight to save her kingdom and restore her throne has only just begun…

Available On

About the Author

Farah Oomerbhoy is the international bestselling author of The Avalonia Chronicles. Her first book, The Last of the Firedrakes, was originally published on Wattpad where it gained over two million reads and a Watty Award. Since publication, her debut has gone on to win a silver medal in IBPA’s Benjamin Franklin Awards and the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards, along with winning a finalist placement in the USA Best Book Awards. Farah loves the fantastical and magical and often dreams of living in Narnia, Neverland, or the Enchanted Forest. With a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Mumbai, Farah spends her creative time crafting magical worlds for young adults. She lives with her family in Mumbai, India.

Giveaway!

For each stop on tour, there will be a special number at the end of the post. Collect all the numbers, add them up, and enter to win one of three prizes! Once you have all the numbers you can enter the giveaway here: http://farahoomerbhoy.com/rise-dawnstar-now/

When I’m writing, I like to “see” my story. I tape a big piece of brown paper to my office wall and cover it with post-it notes of story lines, scene ideas, and nuggets of information I don’t want to forget, along with pictures of settings in which the story takes place.

Once I have a solid feel for the characters I’m creating, I add their photos, too. Sometimes I look for pictures of actors who might play the character and sometimes I look for people who just feel right. When I choose a picture, it’s often less about the way the person looks and more about the personality traits that the photo suggests.

If you’ve been reading A Strange Companion, maybe you’ve already formed images of your own about what the characters look like. I don’t want to ruin that because one of the wonderful things about books is that you get to cast the roles in your own imagination. So, if you prefer to keep it that way, don’t read any further. However, if you’re curious to see what was in my head—and on my storyboard—read on:

Kat:

To me, Kat is very down-to-earth. She loves climbing and the outdoors and she’s not big on fashion or make-up, but she’s still very feminine. Even though she’s going through a rough time in the story and doesn’t always make the best decisions, ultimately, she is tough and smart, and very determined. This photo of Daisy Ridley, not in her scruffy Star Wars garb, is the perfect representation of Kat.

Owen:

Oh, Owen. I do have a soft spot for this character. Although it was very tempting to cast Chris Hemsworth or Aiden Turner as Kat’s love interest (okay, those are my choices, not hers, I admit it) Owen is more the roguish boy-next-door type. He’s kind and funny, handsome, but not with the sort of moody good looks you’d trip over yourself to look at. (Is that just me, too?) Although Owen is loosely based on someone I knew, when I saw this loveable shot of Andrew Garfield, I chose it for my character board.

Gabe:

In the book, Kat describes Gabe as “beautiful.” In her memories, he is perfect in every way. I needed someone sultry, but cool, with the sort of moody good looks I talked about earlier, but in a younger, boyish package. Kat was a teenager when she and Gabe met, so I needed someone that 16-year-old Kat would find attractive. Nicholas Hoult has a boyish sexiness and seemed like someone Kat might have fallen for.

Mum:

Kat’s mother, Helen, is a young widow in her early 50’s, making a fresh start with a new man (much to Kat’s consternation.) I describe her as blonde when we first meet her at the airport, and I imagined to her to be attractive and well put together, but also down-to-earth, like Kat. It took me a while to find the perfect image and, finally, I came across this picture of J. K. Rowling. To me, she looks the part of Kat’s mum and I could imagine her being very pragmatic with Kat and also letting loose and having fun with Brian.

What do you think? Does your vision of these characters match mine? If not, who would you cast to play your favorite roles?